Chapter 11:
It was the third Sunday in a row that Oliver was at the Burrow. Hermione had been out for three days again in the past week and then slept for the next two, so he hadn't seen her for the whole week yet again. He'd worked out his irritation on their spat last Sunday, plenty on the field, all through the week, so now he was just happy to be seeing her shortly. He made his way to the backyard walking through the orchards, to find everyone turned to face Hermione.
"No way! I am not doing that again. Not today." She folded her arms in front of her chest making her breasts come up and Oliver was just glad no one had noticed him yet as he openly stared at her defiant profile, wishing he was close enough to see the color of her eyes this time. On that note he cleared his throat to make his presence known and walked up to the center of the group.
Even before he could greet her or she him, the door leading to the homestead opened and out walked a very pleased looking Charlie. While everyone gasped out their surprise at the new arrival, Hermione dashed off to him, bringing him in a big bear hug, gushingly saying, "Charlie! I am so glad you're here! I could kiss you right now."
Oliver felt a green monster rise inside him at that and he glared furiously at Charlie. She has never welcomed me so warmly he thought darkly. Charlie looked over the top of her head at him, smiling at what he saw in his Oliver's eyes, he turned to the pretty brunette in his arms, "I rather you didn't Mione, what with Oliver staring daggers at me right now. But come tonight, I'm sure we could find ways to express our mutual happiness at seeing each other."
Oliver felt sheer rage inside him. Charlie was laughing at his expressions, so Oliver just narrowed his eyes at him and flipped him off holding up his middle finger discreetly enough for others to miss and prominently enough for him to see. Charlie never stopped laughing after that.
"You're incorrigible Charlie, as always." Hermione punched him on shoulder, hooked her arm with his and brought him towards the group.
"So why the sudden warm welcome from you witch?" Charlie asked, half turning to face Hermione.
Her happiness at seeing Charlie, comfort in being hooked to his arm, the easy banter between them, was all driving Oliver quietly insane with jealousy, until he heard her reply.
"Now you can replace me! These sadists make me play quidditch every Sunday under the pretext of having one player short. But now they'll have you. You'll enjoy the ungodly game, everyone plays happily and I for once get to spend my Sunday with my feet firmly on the ground!" Hermione blabbered on.
"Hmm…" Charlie thought about it all for a few seconds then looked at his old team mate and buddy before announcing his decision.
"Oh I don't like that look," Hermione frowned. "How about I cheer for you during the game and get you, why just you, I'll get everyone an ice cream after it? Just please let me be," she requested.
Oliver did not like the thought of her cheering for anyone except him and bit his inner cheek hard and fisted his hands in his pocket to keep from thrashing Charlie for being a part of his own family get together!
"As tempting as that sounds, I think I'll pass Mione. You should know better than to pit two strong wizards against each other like that," he said smiling indulgently at her, as if she was a 10 year old. "And I have a way out to keep everyone happy," he winked. Then looking straight at Audrey he ordered, "Hey Audrey, get your man on a broom, I dare you and if you do that I'll get the ice creams for everyone."
Before Audrey could even respond, Percy had turned a nice shade of Weasley red, stared Hermione down with pure hate, adding "I'll not forgive you this," and started walking towards the broom shed.
"Never knew he was so whipped," laughed Ginny.
Audrey flushing delicately at the scene that had just unfolded in front her, turned around and giving coy glances towards the shed, she said, "Maybe I should just go speak with him for a moment."
Everyone laughed knowingly as she sprinted down to the shed.
Charlie then turned to the frozen brunette beside him and added, "And to you little one," he said pinching her nose "I promise I'll kick everyone's ass and get the snitch, helping the girls to win for a change." That was greeted by loud chorus of yays and boos, but Hermione remained frozen.
She looked from Charlie to Harry, mumbling, "Oh this is going to be a long…long match," and started dejectedly towards the broom shed herself.
For that game, Ginny changed her position to a chaser as Charlie was their seeker, pit against Harry. Charlie alternated between looking for the snitch, keeping Hermione straddled to the broom and actually doing the keeper's job all through the match and yet somehow he caught the snitch, bagging the first win for the girl's team so far. The game however lasted a good hour and a half.
For the few minutes that Charlie flew away to catch the snitch, Hermione's broom played havoc and Oliver was immediately beside her, instructing her yet again to keep her mind blank.
"You realize you saying this every time does not help me at all, don't you?" Hermione threw back.
Oliver had had enough already. Her closeness with Charlie, their ease with each other had already darkened his mood considerably and now she was snapping at him while just a couple of minutes back she'd been perched stiffly yet controllably on the same fucking broom, with Charlie by her side. He threw one angry look her way, silencing her tirade and just pulled her on his broom and flew them away, uncaring about the result of the broom, the match or even about abandoning his post just then.
He flew her way higher than he had ever before and then turned and got his broom down to a small patch of forest near the Burrow. Miniaturizing his broom in one swift motion, he pocketed it and locked Hermione between a big tree trunk and himself. "Now, tell me, do you prefer Charlie over me? Is there something going on between the two of you that I should be aware of?" he barked.
"What!? NO! Why would you even think such thing? That's just disgusting," Hermione paled at his accusations.
"Is it now?" he snapped.
Hermione just stared at Oliver, his taut tensed face, his fisted hands beside her shoulders and furrowed her brows, "You're jealous?" she whispered questioningly. And then her eyes grew big when she saw the answer in his. "You are jealous." Then as if thinking through something deeply she spoke again, "That's what he meant by pitting two strong wizards against each other… I was wondering." Then she smiled, her eyes going a soft brown at that. "You have nothing to be jealous about Oliver, all the Weasley boys and Harry are like brothers to me. They all kind of took Harry and me in all those years back and now with the situation with my parents, they've just turned themselves into my surrogate family. There's nothing between me and any of them, and trust me, there never will be. It would just feel too much like incest," she shuddered.
He heard the sincerity in her voice and saw it in her eyes and felt like a fool. Why did she arouse such strong emotions in me? he wondered. He looked down, gathered his thoughts and looked at her again. "I'm sorry," he whispered softly, letting his hands drop and taking a step back.
She held his wrist with one hand and cupped his cheek with the other, "It's alright Oliver. We barely know each other. There are bound to be misunderstandings. As long as we clear the air out before it's too late, we should be fine," she continued in a slow, soft tone, giving him a small smile.
He held the hand on his cheek in place with his own and turned to kiss its palm, bending his head down to touch his forehead to hers. "Thank you," he whispered and brought her face up to his for a long burning kiss that spoke of his distress on seeing her with another man, his jealousy, his rage and yet of his understanding of her emotions, his regret of the misjudgment and his gratitude at being forgiven for it all.
Try as she might, Hermione could not bring herself to look up at him after that kiss while Oliver found it strangely amusing and smirked.
"Come, we might as well take back the promised ice creams since we are here," Oliver pulled at her hands and apparated them to Diagon Alley for the purchase.
Waiting for their ice creams, Oliver looked around and saw Madame Malkin's Dress Robes Shop across the street and asked Hermione if she had bought hers yet. Their wedding was after all just two weeks away. She replied in the negative but said she'd planned on doing that the next day, so he dropped the topic. They quietly picked their parcel up after it was handed over and apparated back to the Burrow to face the music he was sure their abrupt departure would have erupted!